When a cellular system is operating at or near capacity, the mobile stations are likely to experience trouble accessing the system because a communication channel is not available at that time. To notify the mobile station that a communication channel is not available, a "fast busy" signal is supplied to the user of the mobile station. This indicates to the user of the mobile station that access is currently being denied, and that an attempt to access the communication channel at a later time is necessary. The user's typical response is to immediately try to gain access to a communication channel, and if denied, the process continues (perhaps indefinitely). When this occurs, the user of the mobile station can become frustrated, while the infrastructure within the communication system supports the extra burden of this connection process. Thus a need exists for an improvement to this potentially frustrating and burdensome process during communication channel access.